A Successful Activity in the gym is on that has most students engaged and their mood is lifted by music, physical activity, and positive relationships with their classmates.

Music: Music has the ability to change the mood of a class. It has untapped potential in assisting with management in the classroom too. When you want students to put everything away and be ready for transition, use a 30 second song. Then the song is running your class and not the teacher. Also, it’s a good stress manager for the teacher if you like the music too!

Tag Games: Make sure all tag games have a way for students to get back in the game after the tag. This is essential for creating a fun atmosphere, because students aren’t just getting each other out, they are getting them back in the game. Partner tag games may have the highest level of participation and many require no equipment. Also, if you have old stuffed animals, they make for very popular taggers.

Gym Homes and Color Teams: If you teach or student teach P.E. to a classroom of students for whom you are also the classroom teacher, you would be wise to create gym homes and color teams for them. If you go to this much trouble, you might also consider organizing your classroom with the same format. I’m attaching a grid that can be used in a gym or classroom. I do mix up the classes with an equal number of boy and girls whenever. I do also try to spread out the students that have more athletic experience or skill, so that when we break into teams they are more evenly matched.
Here’s the color scheme that we use in the gym, It is also used by the major P.E. suppliers, so you can often have equipment that is the same color as the teams, which makes for much easier transitions.Blue Orange Yellow Green Purple Red

When You’re teaching: Connecting to previous experiences improves the pace of understanding:
When teaching in the gym it is helpful to connect a new activity to a previous one. It makes for quicker understanding. For example you might say, “You remember when we held a parachute in a circle in the center of the gym. Let’s make a circle about the same size”.

Demonstrating: When teachers have small group of students come up and do a physical demonstration, it much more inclusive to the diverse learners in the class.

Classroom and P.E. Nonverbals: If you find yourself repeated a verbal directive, look for a way to change it to a nonverbal. For example if you excuse students from class by saying the name of a group. Put up the group names on the wall and use a laser pointer instead. It’s quieter and kids respond more quickly to visual information and something that is unique, like a laser pointer.

Split class into 2 even groups – First 4 on each color team for example

Students sit down facing (backs?) to each other, 12 inches between teams

Students hold hands with the person on either side of them

The rubber chicken will be at the end of the line between the last two players on each team

Close eyes, except for the two people at the beginning of each line

The teacher flips a coin

If the coin lands on heads – both teams send down the pulse to the end of the line and tries to be the first to grab the chicken.

If the coin lands on tails, neither team sends an impulse down the line

Teams gets a point when they are able to send the pulse down their line by using the hand pulse technique

Teams lose a point if a pulse is passed down, or chicken grabbed when the coin landed on tail

Gotcha

Whole groups stands in a circle – close enough to touch hands.

Everyone puts left hand out and open (palm up).

Right hand with finger resting above neighbor’s left open palm.

On the count of three, try to catch your neighbor’s finger, while trying to avoid being caught by your neighbor.

Team Tag:

This is an everyone is it game.

You are trying to tag other people and they are trying to tag you.

However, people are split into smaller groups of three or four and each group is given a different color ball.

Now, if a person is tagged they take a knee and can only get back in if someone from their team throws them their team ball.

Human Knot (Knot my Problem):

Coil-up a looped rope (ends tied together) and place it in the center of the group.

Ask participants to reach across the coil of rope and grab a section of rope with one hand.

Once this is done, ask folks to reach across and grab another section of rope with their other hand.

When participants have a hold of the rope with both hands they shouldn’t let go.

The object is for the group to untangle the rope.

Participants can slide their hands along the rope but may not let go.

Circle The Hoop:

Participants stand in a circle and link hands with a hula-hoop around a designated set link hands to start.

The group must then pass the hula-hoop around the circle by passing it over and under their bodies and arms, without letting go of each other’s hands.

An added challenge is to add a second hoop traveling in the opposite direction.

NASCAR:

With the group standing in a circle and each person holding a rope (ends tied together) the teacher will start a stopwatch and time how long the knot in the rope can be passed around the circle and back to the starting spot.

This game is from the Project Adventure Curriculum. Check out their website: http://www.pa.org/

Setup and Equipment:

Pail

Whiffle golf balls (simulated popcorn)

Break the class in half. 1/2 = bouncers, 1/2=chasers. With four color teams: 2 teams are bouncers and two are chasers

Rules:

The game is set up in the center circle in the gym. An empty pail is set up in the center (absolute) of the circle. The “bouncers” sit on the black line that circles around the pail (about three feet from the pail).

The job of the “bouncers” is to sit on the center circle line in the gym and attempt to bounce the balls into the bucket. The attempt works best with one bounce. However, with younger students (K,1,2) you will probably need to make an exception to this rule.

The job of the chasers is to retrieve the balls that the teacher throws into the air and roll them to their classmates who are the “bouncers”. Chasers are not allowed to bounce balls into the bucket.

The game begins when all of the chasers circle around the teacher who has a full bucket of golf whiffle balls which are thrown at once high up into the air. (Note: A surprising number of students will like to stand close and have these balls land on their heads!)

Chasers may not run with the balls, but must roll them to their classmates in the center circle.

The teacher will time this activity.

When the last ball is bounced into the empty bucket, the time is stopped and now the class should change “jobs”.

The bouncers are now the chasers and vice versa.

The teacher will start this game in the same manner as before and time it again

UO prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, national or ethnic origin, age, religion, marital status, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression in all programs, activities and employment practices as required by Title IX, other applicable laws, and policies. Retaliation is prohibited by UO policy. Questions may be referred to the Title IX Coordinator, Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity, or to the Office for Civil Rights. Contact information, related policies, and complaint procedures are listed on the statement of non-discrimination.